Sloane Stephens:
More Gutsy, More Mature, But?

Matthew Cronin

Nine months ago, Sloane Stephens won her first Grand Slam title at the US Open. Then this year she got to the final of the French.  It was pretty surprising, because she had just come back a couple of months before from foot surgery, walking on crutches before getting back on court. But that wasn’t the only reason it was surprising.

Before, the Californian resident looked fantastic at times, and not at others, getting defensive and down on herself. The most important thing she needed was to grow up, learn, and keep practicing.

Over the past 20 years, when players start on the WTA Tour very young, there are just a few players who have locked in, immediately. They rarely would get super nervous, and they would battle very hard. That includes Serena and Venus Williams, who have combined to win  30 Grand Slams -- a tremendous amount.

But that was not Stephens, who joined the WTA Tour seven years ago. She was pretty good, but not great. Even in 2013, she was already super fast, consistent and driven. But she didn’t hit hard often enough, and often backed off.

Her career had a roller coaster quality. And once a player establishes that pattern it tends to recur over the course of years. Fast forward to Wimbledon 2018—a bad loss in the first round to world number 55 Donna Vekic.

If you looked at Sloane’s game when she came on tour, she had a fair amount of spin, and she could drive her backhand both crosscourt and down the line. On her forehand, she could step in, and bang it anywhere she wanted to.

On her first serve, she could hit flat, or spin it. But while she would rarely have a lot of errors, her forehand wasn’t deep enough at times, and especially against the excellent players. And when she became tight, she wouldn’t scream, she wouldn’t yell -- she would become silent. At the Grand Slams, she would lose, year after year.

Still, she was almost cocky at times. On some days, she would step up into the plate. At the 2013 Aussie Open, she shocked Serena in the quarters. Stephens didn’t miss, Serena was a little bit off. In the days and weeks following that encounter, they had some choice words about each other, and stopped talking for a while. A couple of days later, in the semis, the super aggressive Vika Azarenka outhit Stephens, who mentally disappeared in the third set. 

From then, it seemed like a different Stephens. At the French Open, she reached the fourth round against Maria Sharapova, and while she hustled, the America-based Russian outhit her. During Wimbledon, she was on fire, reaching the quarters and looking like she had a real shot to win it all, because all of the top players had exited. But playing Marion Bartoli — who ended up winning the tournament — the Frenchwoman was very steady and threading the needles, while Stephens was too soft. 

Against Sharapova again in Cincinnati, she out-lasted her. But at the US Open, she had to play against Serena Williams again, on the stadium, and Serena was blazing. She lost.

After that, she was up and down for a few years, and it was hard to tell which direction she was going. She was good, and then she was mediocre. She was happy, and then she was irritable. But Stephens was supposed to be learning. Did she need to step in more, or be more patient? Should she attack immediately, or stand back until she had an opportunity to rip? It seemed to me she couldn't understand it herself.

In August, 2016, she stopped playing  for 10 months  due to a right foot stress fracture. In 2017, Stephens began to practice again. It was hard, and slow, but she was physically fresh and mentally eager again, and she decided that when she returned, she would do something different. Not a tremendous amount, but just act more mature and become more gutsy.

She knew that when she walks on court, if she concentrated, and if she moved it around, then she could grind . Even the biggest and the best. And she did, beating Petra Kvitova, Angie Kerber, and Lucie Safarova in Toronto. In two weeks in New York, she beat Dominika Cibulkova, Anastasija Sevastova, Venus Williams and crushed Madison Keys in the final to win the US Open. She gave up just a few errors.

She seemed able to reach any ball and hit it very deep in reply. She won it all. After that, she was exhausted. She did nothing for months, but then won Miami, beating four excellent players -- Garbine Muguruza, Kerber, Azarenka and Jelena Ostapenko. She couldn’t do it every week, but when she was into it, she could belt the ball and wear down the field.

On the clay courts, though, she had been so-so at best. Until she walked onto the court at Roland Garros this year and within a few days, she was really into it. In the first week, she was straining at times, but she kept pushing, and she didn’t back off, at all in edging Camila Giorgi, 8-6 in the third.

After that, she began to fly, beating her good friend, Madison Keys, in the semis, out running her, yanking her around until the other American could not catch up.

In the final, it looked like Stephens had a real opportunity against Simona Halep. In the first set, she was cracking the ball, moving well, changing the direction. She won the first set, and in the second set, she broke the Romanian to go up 2-1. She was digging deep. Within seconds, though, she fell back. She stopped being aggressive, she wasn’t patient, and her serves slowed. It is hard to say exactly why, but Stephens mentally checked out and she lost 3-6, 6-4, 6-1. Without a doubt, Halep played fantastic tennis at the end, but Stevens lost her focus and she never came back.

As Sloane said at the press conference, she was very upset, but still, she knew she needs to continue to improve--especially at the net — and remember to breath when she is playing against the excellent competitors.

Her results at the Open and the French seemed surprising, but what happened at Wimbledon in her first round loss wasn’t in the context of her career. It seemed logical to assume Stephens could go very deep at Wimbledon once again. Instead she was very lackluster in a first round loss to the 55th ranked woman,  Donna Vekic. More mature, more gutsy, yes, but at a deeper level, the same up and down player she has always been.